Das Namenlose [“The Nameless.”]

(HOLOCAUST).

Coswig Anhalt, Germany, c. 1949(?)

Oil on canvas, triptych-style. Stamped lower right with monogram “OK” (Otto Kreiseler), title-label on reverse. Unframed. Possibly used as a theatrical backdrop.

Large cansvas depicting graphic series of images of the Holocaust experience: Emaciated humans, depraved torture and palpable death. With the use of ghoulish and garish color, brushstrokes are amplified in the demonic faces and macabre themes. The imagery of interplay between skeletal limbs and barbed wire reminds the viewer of the “Memorial to the Victims of the Concentration & Extermination Camps” by Nandor Glid (1924-97), a large dark bronze sculpture located at the Dachau Memorial Site (installed 1968). A similar cast bronze sculpture was installed at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, in 1979.